40 great nail art ideas: 3 shades of red /orange and Dance legend From Russia with love

Introduction

Good day darlings. I brought some magnetic polishes from Russia and one of them called From Russia with love was perfect for orange prompt. You can find swatches below two coats on op of black polish. Also I combined it with another wonderful light orange Sunset funfair and some holographic orange flowers in order to make negative space mani for 40 great nail art ideas challenge. It's a simple design, but flowers and polish itself play with different colors in the sunlight, so it was a lot of fun to wear it.

Results

Figure 1. Dance legend From Russia with love.

40 great nail art ideas: Pink needle drag floral design

Introduction

Good day darlings. I'm on vacation in Russia, but I'll try to write couple blog posts and share some pictures on IG. This week challenge for 40 great nail art ideas was pink & lilac and my specific prompt was needle drag. I just received this gorgeous pink-lilac jelly with copper glitter - Wear it like armour Cadillaquer, perfect shade for spring and for this challenge. However it would not work as a base for needle drag technique as it requires 3 coats to reach opacity. That's why I did needle drag design using clear base polish and bright pink-magenta polish called Electra on top of the silicone mat, let it dry and applied as decals. Also, I added some individual glitters on top so that it would look like flowers. On pictures it looks a bit messy, but in real life those flowers looked wonderful. And did I mention that I'm in love with this particular shade of lilac? I'm sure you'll see it again on my blog.

Results

Figure 1. Floral dry marble design and Cadillaquer Wear it like Armour

Femme fatale Color4nails exclusive Ouija and Asphalt flowers nail art

Introduction

Good day darlings. Combined post for today. Swatch of incredibly beautiful holo glitter Ouija - Color4nails exclusive from Femme Fatale and nail art which I did with this polish as a base. Ouija has a dark grey base and is packed with holographic glitters, easy to apply and super sparkly. For nail art I used Croco polish from Russian brand Nail look, it cracks with very beautiful patterns, but you have wait about 4 minutes before application to let base polish semi dry. To finish this design I added some flowers using dotting tool, you can take a look at my video tutorial at the end of this post.

Results

Figure 1.  Ouija swatch and nail "Asphalt flowers".

Miniature water marble tutorial and best designs of 2015

Introduction

Good day darlings. It's time to reveal which of mine designs you loved the most. And without any doubt the most popular and most loved was miniature water marble design "Exotic flowers" from my birthday. I myself think that it definitely was very special and deserves to be on top. Since August many of you were asking if I can post a tutorial for this nail art and sure enough I promised to make it asap. LOL, little did I know about life... so many things happened after my birthday, including my unexpected 2.5 month vacation in Russia, that I could not find time to make it. But I always remembered about it and finally the tutorial is ready. The most important part is to use small dish for water marble and wait for it to dry completely before taking it out. This can take several hours as in a small dish polish does not spread a lot and water marble becomes quite thick. There is an advantage of slow drying, you can take more time to draw your design and colors stay really vivid. Hopefully you will like it and find it helpful. And at the end I also included collage with five of my most popular nail designs of Instagram.

Results

Figure 1. Best nail design of 2015: Miniature water marble "Exotic flowers".

Figure 2. Miniature water marble video tutorial.

Figure 3. Five most popular designs on my Instagram.

Materials and Methods

Nail Polish:

• Picture polish - Lakodom (2 coats background and water marble decals) 
• Picture polish - Coral reef and Chillax (water marble decals)

Other materials:

• Acrylic paint - black

References

Links to the blog posts with most loved designs.

1. Miniature water marble "Exotic flowers"
2. Foil stamping "Gothic Movember"
3. Free hand "Flower power"
4. Double gradient with vinyls "Beyond colorful"
5. Acrylic rainbow with stamping "Summer rain"

Nail art with miniature water marble floral design using Picture polish Lakodom, Coral reef and Chillax "Exotic flowers"

Introduction

Good day darlings, very special nail art today :) I did this water marble design for Picture Polish contest, but unfortunately could not submit it as an entry, because I learned that water marble was not considered a free hand. I end up submitting another awesome free hand mani, and saved this one for a special occasion. Well, birthday is pretty special, is not it? And it also might be my last post for a while, because I'm going on vacation until the end of September. Do not worry, I hope to be able to a write post from time to time and upload some nail art on Instagram, you can check it out here. 

Now back to the mani, which might be my all time favorite. Did you ever made water marble so beautiful that you wished to put the whole thing on one nail? I know,  I did, and that's why I came up with miniature water marble technique. Unfortunately, there was no time to make a tutorial, but if there will be an interest I'm going to make a separate more technical post with video and pictures of how to make it. For now, please enjoy beautiful photos and do not forget to look at the macros. They show how holo flakies in Lakodom make a beautiful gradient with creamy Chillax and Coral reef, it's truly wonderful. And I'm gladly accepting birthday wishes today :*

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Exotic flowers"

Picture polish nail art quarterly 1 "Flower power" and my free hand design "Flowers and snails"

Introduction

Good day darlings, today I finally can post my free hand design for the Picture Polish nail art contest (* #ppnailartquarterly1), on which I was working for the past two weeks. It was a real challenge and I made four different designs, you gonna see remaining three later.  The theme was "Flower power" and many people strongly associate this phrase with hippie culture. Since I'm a biologist, my nail art was inspired by the amazing power of flowers which we often disregard. World wide people enjoy the beauty of flowers, forgetting that originally the perform a very important function, they create habitat for numerous little creatures. I've always admired how flowers and animals can co-exist and become an essential part of each other's life. For this manicure I used Never Nude, Dragonfly and Hussy to create fictional dry brush flowers and little snails living among them. Accents were done using black and white acrylic paint. Snails have colors similar to those of flowers and can easily hide among them, while helping to spread pollen from one flower to another. I love the harmony of this mini ecosystem, don't you?

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Flowers and snails"

Picture polish Revenge and Moon nails Jimena stamping for #OMD3 "Summer flowers"

Introduction

Good day darlings, today I have another post with Moon nails supply stamping polish. This one is a bright turquoise called Jimena and it stamps perfectly. Base color is gorgeous Picture polish Revenge and somehow they work well together. Revenge looks awesome, unfortunately duochrome effect is not very visible on nails, although it got caught on some photos. This stamping is for floral prompt at #OMD3 which I missed, and it was so much fun to create this bright and cheerful summer nail design. I would be happy to know what do you think about this combo?

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Summer flowers"

30 Days of Colour: Gradient stamping nail art with Picture polish Moscow, Pirouette and Grace "Chrysanthemums"

Introduction

It's a last day of spring and my last entry for May 30 Days of Colour challenge. I chose nail design with gradient and stamping using my second favorite brand picture polish. I have to admit that gradient part was a fail. I attempted vertical gradient, but difference between Grace and Pirouette was too subtle, while Moscow was much darker, so I changed it to random gradient, by adding a bit of Moscow on each finger. Stamping part was really easy, but I also added some extra leaves by hand. This combo of sparkling Picture polishes and Cream stamping looked wonderful, unfortunately my photos do not show it in full beauty. This definitely was one of my  favorite May manis and I absolutely love how it looks on super close macros.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Chrysanthemums".

30 Days of Colour: Picture polish Hussy and Lizzie stamping nail art "Sparkling violets"

Introduction

I'm taking a brake from swatching Femme fatale collection and going back to 30 Days of Colour challenge. Today it's purple/dry brush and again I chose color not technique, because  I was really excited to use my untried purple Picture polish Hussy with Bijou finish. I though it would look good in combination with delicate Lizzie and I was right. Hussy is really well pigmented one coater, while Lizzie is more sheer, but has stunning holographic shine. As an extra touch I used White wedding to color some flowers, and on top of Hussy it gives moon stone effect, is not it cool? I absolutely love how this manicure sparkles in the sunlight.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Sparkling violets".

"Spring flowers" nail art with LaLa land by Enchanted polish andShattered sapphire by Emily de Molly

Introduction

Spring comes so late here in Quebec, we still have a lot of snow on the ground  and nothing is green. Nevertheless, it's already spring in my hear that's why  I created this nail art "Spring flowers". It's blue and white and a bit icy, well, life is hard for first spring  flowers in Canada. Special ingredient in this manicure is old (2012/2013) Emily de Molly glitter polish - Shattered sapphire, which I received only recently. I think it's my first attempt to stamp over glitter and result looks surprisingly nice.

Results

 

Figure 1. Nail art "Spring flowers".

"Chrysanthemum" nail art with Jem by Zoya

Introduction

Today I want to show you beautiful flowers which are really easy to draw using acrylic paint and detail brush (short video tutorial will be uploaded to my Instagram @PhDnails). As soon as I made swatches of Jem I knew that it would look perfect with some acrylic flowers on top and I was right. If you never tried acrylic paint before this is one of the easiest designs, you also can make flowers bigger according to your nails. All you need is pointy brush and two colors of paint, it's fun to mix them together and get a whole spectrum of shades. After paint is dry, just cover your nails with favorite top coat, you can even experiment and use holographic or any other effect top coat.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Chrysanthemum".

ABC challenge: Enchanted polish - Dark fantasy and Amazing: "Stripping violet"

Introduction

Today it's time for letter "E" and  I used two Enchanted polishes for this near negative space striping nail art. One thin coat of glitter Amazing + OPI sheer tint makes it near negative adding sparkle and a bit of color to the bare nail. I wanted to use my striping tapes forever and it was a good occasion to try them. This nail art turned out exactly like I imagined and it looks amazing , also it's easy to do even if you are a beginner. Dotting flowers on accent nail make it even more interesting. I love this combo and both polishes, money well spent. 

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Stripping violet".